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“Tell me what, June?”
She didn’t answer right away. Instead, I listened to her breathing heavily as her cousin tried to convince her to spit it out. “She’s pregnant, too.”
Anna’s words shocked me to my core before rage billowed up through my body like a tangible thing. If I could see myself, it would be a dragon puffing the smoke that preceded the fire. I’d just seen June not two hours ago. There was no way she could be pregnant with my child and not be showing yet. It had been damn near two months before she left for Europe since we were together, but I doubted Anna knew that.
“June isn’t pregnant, or at least not by me.”
“So, you’ll believe some skank club bitch, but not your girlfriend of three years?” Anna accused.
“I believe what my eyes tell me, and Kim brought me proof. June didn’t look pregnant to me, and she’d have to be at least six months along for it to have been mine.”
“What the hell?” Anna yelled at her cousin. “You mean to tell me you haven’t had sex with your man since February? No wonder he cheated on you. Jesus. How were you ever going to…” I didn’t get to hear the rest of what she’d been about to ask June because the line went dead.
I called back immediately. “Sorry about her,” June apologized so quietly she was barely audible the minute she picked up the phone. “She was trying to save me the humiliation of you choosing the other woman over me, since you knocked her up.”
“I didn’t do that, June. We just talked about trying to make things work.”
“But how is everything supposed to work out when there will always be this woman there between us?”
“She’s not. It was one night. One fuck up in which I drunkenly thought I was with you. I hadn’t even spoken to her after that until yesterday. That was when she came to tell me she was pregnant.”
“That was mighty convenient considering I was coming back the next day.”
“Well, even if she had planned it, I’m not with her, June. We might end up with a kid together, but that’s it.”
“I just don’t know if I can handle helping you raise someone else’s baby. All I have been able to think about is the fact that my babies were supposed to be the only ones you ever had. We met in high school. There never should have been anyone else.”
“I can’t change what’s already happened, Junie.”
“Well, I need time to see if I can deal with it.”
“Earlier you said we would figure it all out.”
“Yeah, well, now I’m rethinking things. Her brother is your best friend, she’ll be around you all the time. What happens next time you’re drunk, and she takes advantage of you? Are you going to have another child with her that you try to pass off to me to help raise?” She was shouting by the end.
“She didn’t take advantage of me.”
“She didn’t stop you, knowing you were drunk and had a girlfriend either, did she?”
June had me there. Kim certainly hadn’t tried to stop me. At least not that I remembered. Still. “I told you, aside from her telling me she’s pregnant, I haven’t seen or spoken to her since then. What makes you think she’ll always be around?”
“Maybe, if you left the club, I’d feel better about things.”
“Are you serious right now?” I asked.
“Completely.”
“That’s where this was always headed with you, wasn’t it? You were always going to try to find something you could use to make me leave the club.”
“Not really, but…”
“You know what? Take all the fucking time you need, June because I’m fucking done.” It was my turn to slam the phone down. I sat there at the bar wishing I could drink myself into a numb fucking stupor, but knowing that even if I was allowed to, it wouldn’t be a good idea. The last time I tried to numb her loss, I ended up getting someone else pregnant.
I didn’t bother looking up when the door opened, and someone came in. Instead, I sat there picking at a splinter of wood that stuck up from the bar. It must have happened when someone got in a fight, a little ding was made and rubbed the finish just enough that the wounded wood began to splinter. It was something I would put on my list to get fixed. A quick sanding and splash of varnish would cover it.
“There she is!” Ratchet yelled from across the room. “Early as fuck, too!”
“I didn’t know if you needed me to fill anything out or… I don’t know.” I turned to see Kim standing there talking to the club’s president like they were old drinking buddies. Okay, it wasn’t quite like that, but they seemed far too chummy considering Kim hadn’t grown up in the club the way I had.
